She held an envelope.
“Cole?”
I didn’t move.
“Yes.”
“I’m Melissa.”
“I know.”
She looked close to tears.
“I need five minutes.”
The phrase almost made me laugh.
Five minutes.
Apparently my life now changed in five-minute intervals.
I let her inside.
She stood in the kitchen where Claire’s voice note had played less than a month earlier.
Melissa placed the envelope on the counter.
“Claire sent me money.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t know where it came from.”
“I’m less certain of that.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
I watched her.
She took a breath.
“Claire told you I disappeared because of criminals.”
“Yes.”
“That’s partly true.”
“Partly?”
“My father helped me leave. But not because someone was hunting me.”
“Then why?”
Melissa looked at the floor.
“Because of you.”
The room went still.
“What?”
She opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Fallujah.
Six young men in dusty uniforms standing beside
